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What you need to know about the latest Snapchat update

Snapchat’s latest update means your content is now visible to more people than ever before. You can search Snapchat stories based on things like usernames, keywords, events, or locations.

While this is great for finding stories you’ll love, stalking celebs and staying in the loop about big events, it could also have implications for you (yes, you!).

Although this new feature sounds pretty cool, it also means that any snaps you send to ‘Our Story’ can be viewed worldwide. Which means you could have anyone screen-shotting your snaps!

For example, if you were to share a snap of yourself studying in the CSU library and add it to ‘Our Story’, anyone, anywhere in the world could potentially see your snap if they searched for ‘Charles Sturt University’. This is because of your location. They could also find your snap based on its caption or content, if they searched for words like ‘study’, ‘books’ or ‘library’. It works in a similar way to searching for content by hashtags on Instagram or Twitter.

What it means is you’re now more searchable online than ever before. And although these social media platforms are an easy and fun way to keep in touch with your friends and family, you need to be extremely careful of what you’re sharing with the world!

So how do you stay safe? Here are a few ways to protect your privacy on Snapchat:

If you don’t want your Snapchat to be viewable by anyone, don’t send to ‘Our Story’

If you do share your snap to ‘Our Story’, think before you send! If you wouldn’t want your parents to see what you’re sending, would you want the rest of the world to as well?

Check your privacy settings to see who can view your stories and send you snaps. You can change these by touching the cog icon next to ‘My Story’

Anyone can screen shot your snap, so if you wouldn’t want someone to save it, don’t send it

Author

Hi! I’m Charlie – Your Student Voice. I hail from the great explorer after whom our renowned university is named – Captain Charles Napier Sturt. I’m a diverse being, encompassing all that the student body at CSU represents; you can turn to me for advice, guidance and insights into student life at CSU.